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enCopyright 2015 Wearable World Inc.http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:43:36 -0700Tesla Might Be Getting Into The Home-Battery Business—Or Something Else Entirely<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>When Elon Musk speaks, the tech world listens. On Monday he tweeted that Tesla will unveil a brand new product line in amonth—and it’s not another car:</p><p>The new product could be anything, but on a recent investor call, Musk commented that <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/11/8023443/tesla-home-consumer-battery-elon-musk">the company will soon jump into the home battery business</a>. If that's&nbsp;what&nbsp;Tesla has up its sleeve now, then we could be looking at more than just&nbsp;shiny, newfangled power cells. We may soon have new, easier ways&nbsp;to unshackle ourselves from local power grids.&nbsp;</p><h2>Building A Better Battery</h2><p>Currently, Tesla cars juice up via owners' electric utility lines. Generally speaking, that's cost-effective—charging the battery in an electric car can be <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2014/08/02/figuring-out-exactly-how-much-it-costs-to-charge-tesla-model-s/">less expensive than filling up the tank</a> of a one with a combustion engine. But since electricity rates <a href="http://teslarumors.com/USA-Residental-Energy-Cost-2011-by-State.html">vary depending on where you live</a>—and whatever your utility company decides to charge—you may not be saving as much as you could.</p><div tml-image="ci01b281ea10016d19" tml-image-caption="Imagine a battery in that empty space between these hands." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTIyMzAyOTgwODQxMTEyMTY2.jpg" /><figcaption>Imagine a battery in that empty space between these hands.</figcaption></figure></div><p> That’s where a Tesla-made home battery could come in handy—particularly if used in conjunction with, for instance, solar panels. A report on <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/13/8033691/why-teslas-battery-for-your-home-should-terrify-utilities">The Verge</a> explains how companies such as SolarCity—for which Elon Musk acts as chairman—could offer viable alternatives to local electric utilities, at least in areas with plenty of sunlight.&nbsp;</p><p>However, even if a Tesla-SolarCity bundle is in the works, it may be a while before it becomes reality. At the moment, <a href="http://www.solarcity.com/residential/states">SolarCity only has programs in 15 states and Washington, D.C</a>. Still, a new home battery that could provide homes with power in the case of outages—a regular occurrence no matter what state you live in—could still be an interesting new market for Tesla to jump into. </p><h2>Or Maybe It’s Not A Battery At All </h2><p>There’s always the possibility that Tesla could have something completely different up its sleeve, too. Batteries are fine, and fit in with Tesla’s current business model. But this is Elon Musk, the closest thing we’ve got to a real life Tony Stark. This is the guy who decided that <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/08/09/if-i-won-the-powerball-lottery">magnetic super trains called Hyperloops</a> were something we should realistically be discussing. Maybe Tesla’s got something more fun and exciting planned. </p><p>For instance, competition between Apple and Tesla has been heating up over the last few months. Part of that is because of <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/13/apple-developing-electric-car-codenamed-titan">speculation over an Apple-built car</a> that could “give Tesla a run for its money.”</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/23/apple-car-software-developers-dream">You Might Never Buy An Apple Car—And That's OK</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>It’s possible—though, admittedly, unlikely—that Tesla is working to beat Apple at its own game too. Tesla’s cars already rely on a sophisticated operating system with an easy-to-use user interface. It’s not too hard to imagine Tesla jumping into the mobile business too.</p><div tml-image="ci01cad558c00199de" tml-image-caption="Maybe Tesla's dashboard OS could provide the basis for a new mobile phone...." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MTUwMTEzODA0MjAwNTc5.jpg" /><figcaption>Maybe Tesla's dashboard OS could provide the basis for a new mobile phone....</figcaption></figure></div><p>Maybe Tesla is bringing its Linux-based OS to sleek, interesting handsets. Tesla could provide another alternative to the Apple and Google ecosystems, and one with a great reputation among tech fans and environmentalists alike. </p><p>Again, this is pretty unlikely—but not impossible! And, to be completely honest, it’s way more exciting than some big new battery you can keep in your basement.</p><p> <em>Lead photo by&nbsp;</em><em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/janitors/16312708958">Kārlis Dambrāns</a>;&nbsp;</em><em>Tesla dashboard photo courtesy of Tesla; sun image courtesy of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a></em></p>All we know for sure is that the big Tesla news will be big Tesla news.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/31/tesla-home-battery-smartphone-huh
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/31/tesla-home-battery-smartphone-huhWebTue, 31 Mar 2015 07:00:00 -0700Brian P. RubinHow GitHub Apparently Ended Up In The Crosshairs Of Chinese Hackers<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>The big code repository GitHub is currently fighting off a large, <a href="https://github.com/blog/1981-large-scale-ddos-attack-on-github-com">prolonged&nbsp;denial of service attack</a>—apparently in part because China or its sympathizers took exception to dissidents who use GitHub to host software for routing around China's Great Firewall.</p><p>No group has taken responsibility for the attack, but several indications suggest that its perpetrators are retaliating against China's perceived enemies. Some of the main GitHub pages targeted in the attack are repositories that specifically aim to help Chinese nationals get around the government's firewall.</p><p>One such repo belongs to&nbsp;<a href="https://en.greatfire.org/">Greatfire.org</a>, an organization that tracks online censorship in China. Its GitHub repository includes both links for individuals who want to access sites banned in China and software that website owners can use to redirect people to unblocked versions of their sites. Another targeted repo provides mirror links to&nbsp;the New York Times’ <a href="http://cn.nytimes.com/">Chinese language site</a>, which is inaccessible in China.</p><p>Another clue: The majority of attack traffic is coming from users of Chinese search engine <a href="http://www.baidu.com/">Baidu</a>, which&nbsp;<a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/github-battles-largest-ddos-in-sites-history-targeted-at-anti-censorship-tools/">denies involvement</a> in the attack and claims it has not been compromised. In its official statement, GitHub appears to be referring to hijacked Baidu users when it described the attack as using “sophisticated new techniques that use the Web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic.”</p><p>China has apparently issued no statement on the attack. GitHub described the attack's target <a href="https://github.com/blog/1981-large-scale-ddos-attack-on-github-com">only in the most delicate terms</a>:&nbsp;“Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content.”</p><p>The attack began around 2am UTC on Thursday, and is still going four days later. While the site has been unavailable during some of the time over the course of the attack, <a href="https://status.github.com/">it’s up now</a> despite ongoing traffic onslaughts. One of the reasons GitHub is having trouble mitigating the attack is because engineers say the attacker's techniques are <a href="https://twitter.com/githubstatus/status/582434587613138944">evolving in unspecified ways</a>.&nbsp;</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/01/02/india-lifts-internet-block-github"><strong>India Unblocks GitHub, Three Other Websites</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>GitHub’s global reputation as a place to store code without fear of censorship has repeatedly made it a target for countries that would restrict free speech. In January, <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/01/02/india-lifts-internet-block-github">India blocked the site</a> in an apparent effort to curb ISIS propaganda directed at its citizens, although it almost immediately reversed itself following protests from Indian developers who depend on GitHub.</p><p><em>Photo via GitHub</em></p>It involves dissidents hacking ways around the Great Firewall.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/30/github-biggest-ddos-attack
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/30/github-biggest-ddos-attackWebMon, 30 Mar 2015 16:50:43 -0700Lauren OrsiniHere's A New Way To Step Into A Virtual World<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>When you strap on an Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, you're free to look up, down and around. But as soon as you try to explore the virtual world further, you're stuck. You can't interact with your surroundings or walk across the room.</p><p>New controllers and sensors hitting the market are built to solve this problem, whether by tracking the precise location of your fingers so you can grab that virtual gun or giving you a simple joystick so you can "walk" from place to place. The HTC Vive, one of the highest-profile new headsets, lets you move around a real room and <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/06/htc-vive-awesome-demo-hands-on">incorporates your motion into VR</a>.</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/06/htc-vive-awesome-demo-hands-on">6 Ways The HTC Vive Will Freak Out Virtual-Reality Geeks</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>The startup Occipital thinks there's a simpler way. Up until today, its <a href="http://structure.io">candy-bar-shaped&nbsp;Structure Sensor</a>, an accessory for mobile devices,&nbsp;has mostly been used for 3D scanning of&nbsp;physical objects—for instance, in order to create 3D-printable virtual models. Now, though, Occipital wants to expand into virtual and augmented reality by giving its sensor the ability to map entire rooms and incorporate a user's actual movement onto a screen, and thus into a virtual world.</p><h2>Mixing Virtual Reality And Reality Reality</h2><p>At the <a href="https://occipital.com/about">Occipital</a> office in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood, I recently rambled around with an Pad in my hands and&nbsp;a Structure Sensor strapped to its back.&nbsp;On its screen, I explored a Portal-esque room in hopes of opening a door to move on to the next level.&nbsp;I noticed a laser crossing the room; blocking it would open the door. But to do so I needed a few of the cubes circulating on a line by the ceiling.</p><p>I walked over to a coffee machine in the game,&nbsp;which is called S.T.A.R. Ops,&nbsp;by actually walking down the long row of desks in the Occipital office. I moved through the virtual room in much the same way. I tapped one corner of the screen to grab a coffee cup and moved the tablet away from my body as if I was sticking the cup into the machine. Coffee poured in.</p><p>I powered up a nearby gun by tipping the iPad to pour the coffee into a grate. I shot down some cubes and then stacked them in front of the laser, the iPad once again serving as a physical representation of the blocks. The door opened.</p><p>It's a funny mix of the virtual and real worlds. Most virtual reality experiences are seated and don't incorporate the tipping and reaching motions calls&nbsp;S.T.A.R. Ops&nbsp;calls for. While the movements are fairly intuitive, it takes a while to get used to them. But the learning curve is quick—on my second run through the level, I cut my time by two thirds.</p><h2>Positional Tracking Gone Wild</h2><p>The Structure Sensor works by projecting infrared dots across everything in a room. It can sense depth and motion based on the dots' behavior and build a map of them that updates at 30 frames per second. Occipital calls it "unbounded positional tracking."</p><p>There are lots of sensor systems already available in the virtual reality space. Many, like Leap Motion, are more focused on hand tracking—an area with which Occipital is not currently concerned.&nbsp;CEO Jeff Powers related it more to the Kinect sensor, which VR companies have been hacking to incorporate into their demos, except that the Structure Sensor doesn't need any tricky setup to be used with iPads, iPhones and Android devices.</p><p>Powers noted that high-end VR headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift also use sensors to incorporate movement, and said he believes sensors incorporated directly into the VR device are the only way to go. Though the Structure Sensor doesn't currently deliver the precise hand tracking that Vive does, it allows users to move beyond a predetermined area if they want to walk around in a virtual world.</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/20/google-project-tango-3d-smartphone-prototype">Google's Project Tango: What You Need To Know</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>Eventually, Powers sees Sensor-like systems being incorporated into our mobile devices. <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/02/20/google-project-tango-3d-smartphone-prototype">Google's Project Tango phone</a> will be an early example. But beyond that, he said the ultimate form will be wearable devices that constantly read and make sense of our surroundings. That's the vision of augmented reality at which Google Glass hinted.&nbsp;</p><p>True augmented reality is years, if not decades away. But <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s.t.a.r.-ops-positional-tracking/id969900325?ls=1&amp;mt=8">beginning today</a>, Structure Sensor owners can play&nbsp;S.T.A.R. Ops&nbsp;and think about the virtual-reality experiences they would like to see built in the near-term.</p><p><em>Lead photo courtesy of Occipital</em></p>Occipital's mobile 3D-scanning sensor goes virtual.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/27/occipital-structure-sensor-virtual-augmented-reality
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/27/occipital-structure-sensor-virtual-augmented-realityWebFri, 27 Mar 2015 13:38:16 -0700Signe BrewsterYour "Strong" Password May Be Weaker Than You Think<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>If you've been relying on password meters to determine how strong your passwords are, we've got some bad news. Their strength measurements are highly inconsistent and may even be leading you astray, according to a&nbsp;<a href="http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~mmannan/publications/password-meters-tissec.pdf">new study from researchers at Concordia University</a>:</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p> In our large-scale empirical analysis, it is evident that the commonly-used meters are highly inconsistent, fail to provide coherent feedback, and sometimes provide strength measurements that are blatantly misleading.</p></blockquote><p>Researchers&nbsp;Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet and Mohammad Mannan&nbsp;evaluated the password strength meters used by a selection of popular websites and password managers. The sites surveyed included Apple, Dropbox, Drupal, Google, eBay, Microsoft, PayPal, Skype, Tencent QQ, Twitter, Yahoo and&nbsp;the Russian-based email provider Yandex Mail; the researchers also looked at&nbsp;popular password managers including LastPass, 1Password, and KeePass. They added FedEx and the China Railway customer-service center site for diversity.</p><p>De Carné de Carnavalet and Mannan&nbsp;then assembled a list of close to 9.5 million passwords from publicly available dictionaries, including lists from real-life password leaks, and ran them through those services to what kind of job their password-strength meters were doing. </p><h2><strong>Ineffective Rules</strong></h2><p>Password strength meters typically looked for length, a variety of character sets (such as upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols). Some tried to detect common words or weak patterns.</p><p>However, the strength meters that looked at password composition often ignored other easy-to-crack patterns, and didn't take "Leet" transformations—which replace the letter l with the number 1, for example—into account. Hackers, of course, often try these variations when trying to crack passwords.</p><h2><strong>Inconsistent Results</strong></h2><p>Confusingly enough, nearly identical passwords provided very different outcomes. For example, <strong>Paypal01</strong> was considered poor by Skype’s standards, but strong by PayPal’s. <strong>Password1</strong> was considered very weak by Dropbox but very strong by Yahoo!, and received three different scores by three Microsoft checkers (strong, weak, and medium). The password <strong>#football1</strong> was also considered to be very weak by Dropbox, but Twitter rated it perfect.</p><p>In some cases, minor variations changed the assessment as well due to an overemphasis on minimum requirements: <strong>password$1</strong> was correctly assigned very weak by FedEx, but it considered <strong>Password$1</strong>&nbsp; very strong. Yahoo considered <strong>qwerty</strong> to be a weak password, but <strong>qwerty1</strong> was strong.</p><p>Similar problems emerged with Google, which found <strong>password0</strong> weak, but <strong>password0+</strong> strong. False negatives turned up as well—FedEx considered <strong>+ˆv16#5{](</strong> a very weak password, apparently because it contains no capital letters. </p><p>"Some meters are so weak and incoherent (e.g., Yahoo! and Yandex) that one may wonder what purpose they may serve," the researchers wrote.</p><h2>Black Boxes, Black Boxes</h2><p>De Carné de Carnavalet and Mannan argue that the opacity of password checkers works to their detriment. That could also be a problem for users confused by oddly inconsistent password-strength results.</p><p>“Except Dropbox, and KeePass (to some extent), no other meters in our test set provide any publicly-available explanation of their design choices, or the logic behind their strength assignment techniques," the researchers wrote.</p><p>With the exception of Dropbox and KeePass, the password meters appeared to be designed in an ad hoc manner, and often rated weak passwords as strong. As the researchers wrote:&nbsp;“Dropbox’s rather simple checker is quite effective in analyzing passwords, and is possibly a step towards the right direction (KeePass also adopts a similar algorithm).”</p><p>De Carné de Carnavalet and Mannan&nbsp;recommend that popular web services adopt a commonly shared algorithm for their password strength meters. In particular, they suggest using or extending the&nbsp;zxcvbn&nbsp;algorithm used by Dropbox or the KeePass open-source implementation of it.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nikcname/16870840125">Lead image</a> by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nikcname/16870840125/">nikcname</a></em></p><p><br tml-linebreak="true" /></p>Those password-strength meters are often misleading.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/27/password-strength-weaker-than-you-think
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/27/password-strength-weaker-than-you-thinkWebFri, 27 Mar 2015 07:00:00 -0700Yael GrauerIt May Have A Billion Users, But YouTube Isn't A Sure Thing Just Yet<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Since it launched to the public at the end of 2005 (the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw">very first video</a> is still online), YouTube has come to dominate online video in a way that few businesses manage to dominate anything on the Web. Today, it boasts <a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html">more than a billion users</a>, who are uploading more than 300 hours of video every minute and generating billions of views every single day.</p><p>So far, so rosy—but YouTube isn't exactly the home run that these figures might suggest it is, and it's facing increasing pressure from all sides. Last month <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-for-youtube-1424897967">the Wall Street Journal</a> reported that YouTube was only just breaking even; this month, Facebook unveiled <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/facebook-youtube-embeddable-video">a host of new video features</a> designed to steal away a large chunk of YouTube's share of the market.</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/facebook-youtube-embeddable-video">Facebook Is Coming After YouTube With Embeddable Videos</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>Mark Zuckerberg isn't the only one who wants some of those YouTube eyeballs, either.</p><h2><strong>A Changing Landscape</strong></h2><div tml-image="ci01ca6e0ef001efe2" tml-image-caption="Mark Zuckerberg is coming for YouTube" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a1.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDM2NTQ4Njk0OTE5MTc4.jpg" /><figcaption>Mark Zuckerberg is coming for YouTube</figcaption></figure></div><p>The <a href="http://youtubecreator.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/a-new-way-to-see-and-share-your-world.html">360-degree</a>, 4K video uploads YouTube allows today are a world away from the grainy, blocky, buffering clips that appeared in the early days of the site. But it's not just the technical aspects of online video that have come on in leaps and bounds.</p><p>We're all <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/01/08/facebook-video-view-spike">watching more video than ever before</a>, for example; movies and television shows are <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/09/hbo-now-apple-tv-exclusive-partners">available on-demand over the Web</a> in ways that would have been hard to envisage a decade ago; and services like Spotify (launched in 2008) have changed the way we think about content streaming.</p><p>Music is an interesting case study for those looking to chart the evolution of YouTube. It was something the video site stumbled into almost accidentally, providing an online, instant access, personalized version of MTV that connected with music lovers (especially younger ones). Before YouTube, there wasn't really a way to find good-quality music videos online in any great number—today it hosts audio and video for millions of tracks.</p><p>Along the way, music on YouTube has become a professional, money-making business through partners like Vevo. But is it making enough? Bar an advert or two, all this content is free to access, and as rumors circulating around Spotify suggest, that's not a model the record labels <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5645cf6c-ce73-11e4-900c-00144feab7de.html">are particularly keen to see continue</a>.</p><p>Enter <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/11/12/youtube-announces-music-key">YouTube Music Key</a>, which provides ad-free tunes with a few extras thrown in if you pony up $9.99 a month for a Google Play Music subscription (you get both services whichever one you sign up for). From free to ad-supported to subscription in the space of ten years—that's a substantial evolution, and one that makes you wonder how many more subscription services YouTube has up its sleeve.</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/06/26/youtube-vidcon-big-business-creators-fans">YouTube May Be Winning The World And Losing Its Soul</a></strong></p></blockquote><p><a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/09/22/youtube-funded-shows-prediction">YouTube personalities</a>&nbsp;who produce videos about&nbsp;tech, make-up, cooking, video game &nbsp;and just about any other topic under the sun are another booming area of business for the channel. That's no doubt why big names like Facebook and small startups such as <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/12/18/all-about-vessel-youtube-killer">small startups such as Vessel</a> are looking to prise these stars (and their audiences) away from Google's grip.</p><p>In the coming years, any big name video personality or successful music artist is going to have more choices than ever for hosting their material. So what does YouTube do next?</p><h2><strong>A Changing YouTube</strong></h2><div tml-image="ci01ca6dfbc001efe2" tml-image-caption="Hits like Gangnam Style took off on YouTube." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a2.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDM2NDY2Mjg1MjM0MTg2.jpg" /><figcaption>Hits like Gangnam Style took off on YouTube.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Google faces a battle to both hang on to the core pillars of YouTube's popularity as well as expand into more lucrative areas. One of those areas is likely to be video-game streaming and e-sports, a part of the market YouTube has yet to make a mark in (largely <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/08/26/amazon-twitch-gaming-esports-acquisition-goodreads">thanks to Amazon's Twitch game-streaming site</a>).</p><blockquote><p><strong>See also: <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/01/18/the-twitch-tv-phenomenon-is-bigger-than-you-think">Video Games As Spectator Sport—Why Twitch Is Booming</a></strong></p></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/esports/youtube-google-esports-livestreaming/">The Daily Dot reported this week</a> that YouTube is preparing to dust off its live streaming ambitions and make esports the focus. Insider sources suggest Google has already started putting together a team and working on preparing the ground for such a move, with an announcement expected in June.</p><p>Live streaming of traditional sports could also be a potential goldmine—this is an area YouTube has dabbled in before, but most of the key events and leagues are tied up in several layers of television rights contracts. It seems it will take a TV-to-online shift in mindsets, like we saw with music, before live broadcasts of the NFL and its ilk can become a reality.</p><p>Then there's the idea of YouTube pulling a Netflix. This is an idea often rumored and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/19/google-launch-youtube-subscription-service-without-ads-netflix">half-confirmed</a> by YouTube's head of content, Robert Kyncl, last month. In short, pay a monthly fee and never see an advert again—presumably a very good deal from YouTube's perspective as it looks to finally get in the black and stay there. There's potential too in a closer relationship with Google Play, providing a Web-based streaming equivalent to iTunes.</p><p>What's certain is that YouTube can't stand still, even with a billion user accounts to its name. If it's going to be prospering at 20, then it's will have to be significantly different from the YouTube of today.</p><p><em>Mark Zuckerberg photo by Owen Thomas for ReadWrite; other images courtesy of Google</em></p>Rivals are everywhere—now including Facebook.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/26/youtube-change-or-die
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/26/youtube-change-or-dieWebThu, 26 Mar 2015 13:24:30 -0700David NieldFacebook's First Drone Is Broader Than A 737<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Drones and satellites will soar above the earth under Facebook's plan to bring Internet connectivity to remote corners of the globe.&nbsp;</p><p>At the F8 conference Thursday, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer revealed images of the company's first such product: the Aquila, a solar-powered drone with the mass of a small car and a wingspan wider than that of a 737 jetliner.</p><p>Facebook acquired five employees from drone startup Ascenta last March. The team built the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinetiq_Zephyr">Zephyr</a>—a drone that could fly for two weeks on solar power alone. With its distinctive U-shape, the Aquila appears to be a direct descendant.</p><div tml-image="ci01ca712af001efe2" tml-image-caption="Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer presents the Aquila drone" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDM5OTY3NzU3MjgxOTIz.jpg" /><figcaption>Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer presents the Aquila drone</figcaption></figure></div><p>The drone's development is managed by Facebook's Connectivity Lab, a part of the company's Internet.org initiative, which plans to bring Internet connectivity to the several billion people in the world who have never had access. On stage,&nbsp;Schroepfer described the project as an answer to simple economics: Companies spend billions wiring cities, but can't expect the same return on investment in rural areas. As a result, people in remote regions rely on either limited options or none at all.</p><p>"You have to have satellites, drones and other things that don't require the massive investments in terrestrial infrastructure in order to provide internet access for this world," Schroepfer said.</p><p><em>Photos by Signe Brewster and Owen Thomas for ReadWrite</em></p>Much of the world's Internet will come from the skies.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/26/facebook-drone-aquila-internet-org
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/26/facebook-drone-aquila-internet-orgWebThu, 26 Mar 2015 12:19:45 -0700Signe BrewsterWhy Drone Regulations Are Taking Forever<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Amazon is arguing that the Federal Aviation Administration took so long to approve its test drone, the model in question has become obsolete. It said as much during a Tuesday <a href="http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings&amp;ContentRecord_id=edf8ac57-d9a5-4bf8-9938-2017a3e89fd0&amp;ContentType_id=14f995b9-dfa5-407a-9d35-56cc7152a7ed&amp;Group_id=b06c39af-e033-4cba-9221-de668ca1978a">testimony before a Senate subcommittee</a>. </p><p>"While the FAA was considering our applications for testing, we innovated so rapidly that the [drone] approved last week by the FAA has become obsolete,” said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for Global Public Policy. “We don’t test it anymore. We’ve moved on to more advanced designs that we already are testing abroad."</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/03/20/amazon-prime-air-faa-exemption-drone-delivery"><strong>Amazon's FAA Exemption Doesn't Make Prime Air Any More Real</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>The FAA took a year and a half to approve Amazon’s particular drone model, which is a lengthy amount of time in the technology world. According to Misener, it’s only the U.S. that has given Amazon this amount of hassle. </p><p>“Nowhere outside of the United States have we been required to wait more than one or two months to begin testing, and permission has been granted for operating a category of UAS [unmanned aircraft system], giving us room to experiment and rapidly perfect designs without being required to continually obtain new approvals for specific UAS vehicles,” he said during the hearing.</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/03/07/faa-commercial-drones-regulation-lacks-authority-federal-judge"><strong>Why Commercial Drones Are Stuck In Regulatory Limbo</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>Commercial drones have been locked up in regulatory limbo in the United States ever since their invention. It’s a far cry from other countries, where drones are being deployed and tested at much faster rates. According to an FAA spokesperson speaking to ReadWrite, this is a response to the especially complicated U.S. aviation market, which includes both commercial carriers and a vast number of private aircraft:</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p>We recognize industry’s urgency and understand the many amazing applications for UAS technology. However, the United States has the largest, most complex airspace in the world with—unlike other countries—a large general aviation fleet that we must consider when planning UAS integration, since those aircraft and small UAS may occupy the same airspace. Also, different laws and regulatory structures in other nations may allow them to act more quickly to approve certain UAS operations.</p></blockquote><p>The spokesperson went on to say it was necessary for the FAA to have knowledge of exact makes and models of commercial drones in order to correctly assess them. That’s why the FAA claims it can’t approve a category of drones, just individual models.</p><blockquote><p>Everything we do is safety-oriented, and we base our approvals for unmanned aircraft operations on an assessment of the risks to other aircraft and to people and property on the ground. To make that risk assessment, we need sufficient information on a company’s planned operations and aircraft, and we have been working diligently with Amazon to get the information we need.</p></blockquote><p>The FAA is fighting against the tide of public opinion to correct “misconceptions and misinformation about unmanned aircraft system (UAS) regulations.” <a href="http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=76240">In an article</a> published last year, the organization responds to assertions such as “Myth… The FAA is lagging behind other countries in approving commercial drones.”</p><p>Responses from the FAA don’t seem to be placating drone advocates. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) is the latest lawmaker to suggest <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/03/23/senator-cory-booker-to-introduce-commercial-drone-legislation-following-faa-amazon-ruling/">introducing temporary legislation</a> to speed up the commercial use of drones. He aptly calls it the “Commercial UAV Modernization Act.”</p><p><em>Photo via Amazon</em></p>The FAA justifies itself.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/faa-drone-regulation-taking-forever
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/faa-drone-regulation-taking-foreverWebWed, 25 Mar 2015 13:31:02 -0700Lauren OrsiniFacebook Is Plotting Its Way Into Your Smart Home<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>At Facebook’s f8 developer conference Wednesday, the company made its play for the so-called Internet of Things by way of its Parse app development platform. The "back-end as a service” provider just announced new software development kits geared for smart home purveyors.</p><p>Parse’s bread and butter has been apps for mobile devices (read: smartphones and tablets), as well as Web and desktop platforms. With the nascent smart home movement, however, the definition of connected gadget has expanded rapidly to include furniture, appliances, locks, lights and other fixed household products and features.</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/30/parse-facebook-ilya-sukhar-app-backend"><strong>The App Plumber: Parse's Ilya Sukhar</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>No wonder Parse—and Facebook—<a href="http://blog.parse.com/">want in on that action</a>. Smart homes are one of the hottest and fastest-growing areas of technology right now. The master plan: to make it easier for hardware makers to hook into this Internet of Things movement. </p><h2><strong>Parsing The Smart Home</strong></h2><div tml-image="ci01ca5ccf90002a83" tml-image-caption="" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDE3NTg1MDcyMTQwMjU4.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>Two years ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/06/zuckerberg-parse-developers-facebook-developers">made a surprise appearance</a> at the Parse Developer Conference to convey a message: Facebook wants to make it easier to build great applications. Now the sentiment seems to have come full circle, with Parse co-founder Ilya Sukhar telling Facebook's F8 conference that he wants to make smart home development easier.&nbsp;</p><p>Facebook acquired Parse in 2013, giving the social network some juice (and cred) among app developers. Now more than 400,000 of them rely on the service for data, cloud, software integration and other services for their apps. Parse&nbsp;supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac OS X and Windows, not to mention Javascript, .NET, Unity, PHP and Xamarin technologies.&nbsp;</p><p>Now, with fridges, TVs, lighting, garage doors and more getting smarter and more connected, Parse is eyeing a potentially huge expansion of its platform.&nbsp;</p><div tml-image="ci01ca5cc7b0019512" tml-image-caption="" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDE3NTUxMjQ5MjQ5NTU0.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>Parse's Sukhar made it clear at F8 that he wants to boost security while reducing complexity for developers of all sizes—from companies creating innovative home automation features to tinkerers hacking bespoke smart home solutions on top of their Arduinos.&nbsp;</p><p>Toward that end, Parse is putting out an array of software development kits (SDKs) for various Internet of Things hardware setups. Among them, the company offers an Arduino SDK for the <a href="http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardYun?from=Products.ArduinoYUN">Arduino Yún</a> micro controller board, which supports Wi-Fi, and is working on tools for the upcoming Arduino Zero.</p><p>According to Sukhar, the company also has a “reference SDK” up its sleeve to help guide chipset manufacturers as they establish their hardware platforms. The open-source kit, also known as the Embedded C SDK, was designed for Linux and real-time operating systems.</p><div tml-image="ci01ca5cd6b001c80a" tml-image-caption="" tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a3.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI5MDE3NjExMTEwMzY5Mjkw.jpg" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div><p>These and other Parse tools, including “start” guides and help docs, are available on <a href="https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-embedded-sdks">GitHub</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>With these kits, device makers can support push notifications and saved data, and integrate with Parse's cloud back-end. For hardware makers and developers, it clearly looks like an easier way to go than doing it themselves. What seems less clear is whether end users would embrace having Facebook—even by way of Parse—enter their homes.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photos by Owen Thomas for ReadWrite</em></p>Its Parse unit courts hardware makers with developer tools.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/parse-facebook-f8-smart-home-sdk
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/25/parse-facebook-f8-smart-home-sdkWebWed, 25 Mar 2015 13:12:59 -0700Adriana LeeAmazon's FAA Exemption Doesn't Make Prime Air Any More Real<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>The Federal Aviation Administration just granted an <a href="http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=82225">experimental airworthiness certificate</a> to one of Amazon’s delivery drone designs. However, this doesn’t make Prime Air any more realistic than it’s been up to this point.</p><p>The FAA’s certificate grants Amazon the ability to test its drones, but it's too restrictive to allow that testing to take place in a realistic environment. The drones must always be operated within line of sight. Tests must take place during daylight hours, at 400 feet or below, during clear weather only. Also, all test operators must have a private pilot’s certificate. </p><p>Furthermore, Amazon will be required to report no small amount of data to the FAA on a monthly basis, including “number of flights conducted, pilot duty time per flight, unusual hardware or software malfunctions, any deviations from air traffic controllers’ instructions, and any unintended loss of communication links.”</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/07/11/amazon-prime-air-drones-faa-exemption-request"><strong>Amazon Tells The Feds It Really Wants To Test Drone Delivery</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>Amazon has been waiting for the FAA to make a decision since <a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/07/11/amazon-prime-air-drones-faa-exemption-request">last July</a>, when it first petitioned the federal government for a Prime Air testing exemption.</p><p>With this approval, Amazon joins a mere six organizations cleared to test drones in the U.S.: the University of Alaska, the state of Nevada, Griffiss International Airport in New York, the North Dakota Department of Commerce, Texas A&amp;M University's Corpus Christi campus, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.</p><blockquote tml-render-layout="inline"><p><strong>See also: </strong><a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/16/faa-drone-rules-draft-proposal-finally"><strong>The FAA Finally Suggests Drone-Use Rules—And They Don't Allow Much</strong></a></p></blockquote><p>The FAA’s restrictions aren’t picking on Amazon in particular either, but continue the agency’s track record of extremely limited drone-use rules. In its <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/16/faa-drone-rules-draft-proposal-finally">February proposal</a> for the regulation of unmanned aircrafts 55 pounds and under, the FAA required line of sight visibility and a pilot’s license as mandatory for all flights.</p><p>The agency is expected to bring this proposal to a vote later this year.</p><p><em>Photo via Amazon</em></p>But there will definitely be more tests.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/20/amazon-prime-air-faa-exemption-drone-delivery
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/20/amazon-prime-air-faa-exemption-drone-deliveryWebFri, 20 Mar 2015 06:53:38 -0700Lauren OrsiniDrones Are Getting Smarter—And More Useful<!-- tml-version="2" --><p>Drone copters are starting to get smart&nbsp;enough to take on complex tasks with little input.</p><p>The drone startup <a href="http://matternet.us/">Matternet</a>, for instance,&nbsp;will release its first product on March 30—a quadcopter capable of carrying a kilogram of cargo up to 20 kilometers (that's 2.2 pounds over 12.5 miles).&nbsp;The drone, which is a bit larger than the consumer variety, is capable of carrying out autonomous flights at the push of a button.</p><p>Using an associated app, you simply select a nearby drone and a destination. Matternet’s software determines the best route and spots any obstacles, such as a no-fly zone around an airport. Then the drone takes off—no further input needed.</p><p>Matternet CEO&nbsp;Andreas Raptopoulos&nbsp;sees potential for the drone among on-demand delivery services like Instacart and Postmates, which could use them to quickly send off items to customers. But it could also be used to fly blood, or even a transplant organ, from one hospital to another.</p><p>The only thing stopping it currently are FAA rules forbidding drones to be operated out of sight of the pilot. That could change soon if the FAA decides to grant more relaxed guidelines for their operation. (Though that's <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/02/16/faa-drone-rules-draft-proposal-finally">very much in question</a> right now.)</p><div tml-image="ci01c9db90d0012a83" tml-image-caption="&amp;nbsp;Consumer software lead Chris Hinkle and CEO Andreas Raptopoulos with their Matternet drone at SXSW." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a4.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI4ODc1NDI1NDEyODcwMTE0.jpg" /><figcaption>&amp;nbsp;Consumer software lead Chris Hinkle and CEO Andreas Raptopoulos with their Matternet drone at SXSW.</figcaption></figure></div><h2>The Robots Are Coming! Hurray!</h2><p>At a SXSW “robot petting zoo,” Matternet’s drone was joined by machines built to respond in the case of a disaster or to take on essential tasks that would otherwise require lots of manpower or expensive equipment.</p><p>AirRobot, a sleek, stripped down traditional drone (i.e., an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle">unmanned aerial vehicle</a> resembling a pilotless plane), has responded to 18 out of the 43 disasters at which robots have been utilized by responders. It can fly much lower than a helicopter, giving crews more precise intelligence. It's been used at train crashes and mudslides to provide live video feeds of disaster. Teams can use the feed to monitor the situation and plan their response.</p><p>Halodrop, another drone at the zoo, uses live streams to monitor major infrastructure for damage. Instead of a five person crew working for a week, it can check, say, an entire bridge in three hours.</p><div tml-image="ci01c9db8a0001efe2" tml-image-caption="Muppette is made from off-the-shelf sensors and drone parts, but the team invented the 3D printing system." tml-render-layout="inline"><figure><img src="http://a5.files.readwrite.com/image/upload/c_fill,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTI4ODc1NDI1NDEyOTc3OTM4.jpg" /><figcaption>Muppette is made from off-the-shelf sensors and drone parts, but the team invented the 3D printing system.</figcaption></figure></div><p>The most striking bot at the zoo was Muppette, the product of two architects who grew tired of the limited build area on their office’s 3D printer. They began building a 3D printing drone in their spare time with an off-the-shelf drone and sensors. A tube snakes out from the drone's belly, where it can deposit a concrete mix to build a temporary shelter. In the case of a disaster, it could effect temporary repairs to roads or other essential infrastructure.</p><p>There's no doubt that drones are entering our lives. The question is whether the world will see only the bad, or welcome the good.</p><p><em>Lead photo courtesy of Matternet; other photos by Signe Brewster for ReadWrite</em></p>In a disaster, robots can make all the difference.http://readwrite.com/2015/03/19/drones-smarter-more-capable-disaster-relief
http://readwrite.com/2015/03/19/drones-smarter-more-capable-disaster-reliefWebThu, 19 Mar 2015 13:15:28 -0700Signe Brewster